5 Fun Activities to Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day

Whether or not you’re Irish, there’s something whimsically refreshing about celebrating St. Patrick’s Day on March 17th. This year, make it a family affair and indulge in some lucky fun with the following ideas.

1. Serve up a lucky treat.

About 2-3 cups Lucky Charms Cereal (depending on as much as you'd like)

About 1 cup M&M's candies

Rainbow Sprinkles

Instructions

Line a large, rimmed baking sheet with foil. Set aside.

Melt the vanilla CandiQuik according to package directions or until smooth and melted. Spread the vanilla CandiQuik in an even layer onto the foil. You don't want it to be super thick, but don't make it super thin, either.

Immediately top evenly with broken up Circus cookies, Lucky Charms, M&M's and sprinkles. Likewise, you could add dried fruits, nuts, or other candies if you'd like.

Allow the bark to set up before breaking into pieces.

Green Candied Popcorn

Ingredients

4 quarts popped corn

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 cup light corn syrup

2 tablespoons butter

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/4 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon baking soda

Green food coloring

Instructions

In heavy saucepan on medium heat melt butter then add sugar, corn syrup, cream of tartar and salt. Increase temperature to medium high and bring mixture to a boil, stirring constantly to dissolve sugar.

Once mixture boils, add in food coloring and stop stirring. Boil for 5 minutes (Do not stir). Mixture should be about 250-260 degrees. Remove from heat and carefully stir in vanilla and baking soda.

Working quickly and while mixture is foamy, pour mixture over popped corn and gently stir to coat popcorn.

Place popcorn into a large roaster or rimmed baking sheet (lined with parchment paper or sprayed with cooking spray) and bake at 200° F for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes.

2. Get Crafty.

Here is a link to a cute variety of adorable St. Patrick’s Day crafts. And yes, you’ll definitely want to stock up on green paper.

3. Go Green.

One of the traditions of St. Patrick’s Day is for people to wear their favorite articles of green clothing and accessories. Many schools celebrate by allowing students to go crazy with green including face paint, green wigs, big green top hats and anything else that will liven up this fun holiday. And if you don’t wear any green on March 17—be prepared to get pinched by a leprechaun.

4. Irish Music

Celtic, folk, and traditional Irish pub songs are sure to put a little jig in your step this St. Patrick's Day. If you don’t have a collection of Irish music, you can easily get right into the spirit of things by finding Irish stations on your local cable station or free, on-line stations such as Pandora and Accu-Radio. Some traditional Irish music artists to check out are The Chieftains, The Dubliners, Planxty, and Clannad.

5. Involve the Leprechauns

Don’t let St. Patrick’s Day come and go without incorporating some playful shenanigans around your home. Here are a few fun prank ideas that will leave your kids feeling festive and silly.

Add green food coloring to the toilet bowl water for lots of giggles.

Wear green lipstick St. Patrick’s Day morning and plant a big smooch on your kid’s cheeks and your spouse’s lips.

Leave gold chocolate coins throughout your home such as inside your kid’s shoes, on top of the roll of toilet paper, next to their toothbrushes, in your mailbox, and other places that family and friends won’t be expecting a little surprise.

Build a leprechaun trap. Irish legend says that if a human catches a leprechaun the leprechaun has the power to grant that human 3 wishes in exchange the human has to let the leprechaun go after the wishes are granted. This whimsical tradition can be lots of fun and you and your kids can build one together and let your creativity soar. Check out this assortment of traps on pinterest.com.